What also pumps me up, though, are successful, traditional companies (law firms, accounting firms, plumbers and insurance agents). The reason is that – for them – differentiation, employee retention, continuous growth, etc., takes exceptional leadership talent and creativity. The practical experience of the leaders of these businesses is something that can directly help us transform our own companies.

Neil Simons, the founder and president of Independent Benefit Services, is that kind of leader. There are a large number of companies – locally, nationally, and even internationally – that compete with his firm in its four practice areas: health and wellness, retirement plans, executive benefits, and human resources outsourcing. However, his growth over the last 12 years, including consistent growth during the recession, bears witness to the fact that his firm must be doing something right. When we talked recently, he gave me a list of things that he learned in his 23 years of doing business that, once he started implementing them, transformed his company. A few of them are:

If you hire better people, you need fewer people to do the job. An axiom of leadership is to hire slowly, which means that you should go through a deliberate process to ensure you are making the best possible hire. Neil’s hiring process involves interviews, a test, and then some more interviews. It also involves paying more for better qualified people and keeping a nice office space.

You can’t spend your time in daily operations and effectively lead a growing business. From 1989-1999, Neil not only spent his days closing deals and servicing those cases, he also was the comptroller, the office manager, the copier repairman, etc. In 1999, he started going through the process of delegating his cases and bringing in outside people to manage his back-office functions. Today, he is completely out of case work and appropriately spends his time in business development, advising his advisers, and strategy. It’s no surprise that his business growth took off after this change.

Processes, processes, processes, processes. From feedback he’s received, Neil has learned that his customers keep coming back because his firm’s customer relationship management process – a continuous cycle of advising, analyzing, anticipating, and advocating – allows his customers to make better decisions and minimizes their surprises. This is crucially important in each of the firm’s practice areas.

A good adviser isn’t necessarily a good producer, and vice versa. Neil separated the traditional producer role into two: adviser staff and business development staff. He did this because he realized that there were lots of excellent advisers out there who just weren’t attracted to “closing the deal.” By making the adviser role one that did not require sales, Neil was able to greatly increase the pool of outstanding candidates and he was able to have advisers focus completely on serving customers. It also allowed Neil to get his business development staff to focus solely on bringing in new business.

Neil is going to be the speaker at July’s National Capital Region Entrepreneurs Forum, so join us at the Tower Club to learn more from his experience or just ask him a question or two (note: the Forum is run at breakeven and is not a marketing event, so it’s safe to come).

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